The Boy In The Photograph
by The Lonely Geek
Summary: At Tony's funeral, Morgan feels overwhelmed and goes outside. She begins to have a conversation with Peter and they begin to connect.


_**I hope you enjoy and I would love your opinion on this.**_

_**The Boy In The Photograph**_

Sighing, Peter looked across the lake. He needed a moment to breath. People kept coming up to him and offering their condolences. He didn't want them though. He just wanted Mr Stark to not be dead. He blinked back the tears. It still didn't feel real. All he had felt since the death was numb. He didn't even really feel the pain from it. He just felt nothing. He wished there was something – anything that he could do to bring him back.

According to Pepper, Mr Stark was devastated about him dying. A day didn't go by when he didn't think of Peter. She said that he saw Peter as his own kid. Peter had looked up to him like a dad to. Like the dad he had never had.

Aunt May had been trying to make him feel better. She kept buying him treats and ignoring the fact that he spent most nights swinging round the city and the days sleeping. It wasn't making him feel any better. It was his fault that Mr Stark was dead. If only he had sacrificed himself instead of Mr Stark.

"You're that boy," Peter looked down to see a young girl – Morgan Stark – looking up at him. He bent down, wondering what she meant. "The one from the photograph."

"What photo?" Peter asked bending down so that they were on the same level.

"The one Daddy kept in the kitchen," She told him, her eyes misting slightly when she said the word 'Daddy'. "He always looked sad when he looked at it."

"Me and your da-" Peter broke off, his voice cracking. "He was important to me." Morgan smiled slightly at that.

"I think you were important to him too," She told him, and he smiled at her.

"I hope I was," He said, picking her up and standing back up again. She buried her head into Peter's shoulder. "Does your mum know your out here?" He felt a little head shake.

"They all keep talking to me," She told him. "I wanted to be alone."

"I get that," Peter replied, stroking her hair softly. "I need to be alone sometimes."

"Where do you go?" She asked him, taking her head out of his shoulder and looking at him. Peter paused a moment, looking into her wide eyes. They were just like his.

"It's a secret," Peter smiled at her. He bopped her nose with his finger softly and she giggled quietly. "Do you promise not to tell? Or do the same thing that I do? You're too young."

"I promise," Morgan told him, holding out her finger. "Pinky swear." Peter smiled, he had almost forgotten how kids liked to make pinky swears.

"Pinky swear," He smiled, linking his pinky with hers. "Your dad made a suit for me, and it helps me climb buildings. I like sitting on rooftops. You mustn't do it though."

"I know," Morgan told him. She wrapped her small arms around him, liking the comfort he brought her. Everyone else had just told her how sorry they were that her dad was gone. That he had been a hero. He sacrificed himself to save the world. That wasn't the person she knew though. Her dad was the person that tucked her in at night. He was the one that played with her and let her play with his suits. He was the one that hugged her when there was a storm and she was scared of the flashes of lightening and rumbles of thunder. This person seemed to understand her though. The boy in the photograph understood what her dad had really been like. "Daddy used to pick me up in one of his suits and let me sit on the roof. He built a fence to stop me falling off."

"I can take you up sometime if your mum says it's okay," Peter offered. He was rewarded with a small smile. "Only your house though because it has a fence."

"I'd like that," She told him.

"Morgan! Morgan!" Peter heard a faint calling in the distance.

"Someone's looking for you," He turned to see who it was and saw Pepper searching for Morgan.

"Morgan!" She called again.

"Mummy," Morgan shouted, seeing Pepper coming toward her.

"There you are!" Pepper said, relief obvious in her voice. "I hope she wasn't a bother."

"He said he'd take me on the roof," Morgan told her mum excitedly, forgetting everything that had happened over the past few days. Peter saw the look of concern on Pepper's face and immediately began trying to explain.

"I only me-" He started. "Only if you sai-"

"Thank you," Pepper smiled down at the boy that her husband had been so fond of. Though he was only 15, well technically 20 now, he looked much older. After everything that had happened, he had grown up so much. Pepper didn't know much about the kid, but she knew that he had given Tony more than a few grey hairs. "I don't know if I could ever put a suit on to do it for her. Not after-" She broke off, holding Morgan with only one hand so that she could wipe away a tear.

"Let me take her," Peter offered, stepping forward and she passed the girl gratefully. She put one hand over her mouth. "It's okay." He told her softly, unsure how to comfort the crying woman. A sob turned into a half laugh and a hiccup.

"You are so like him," She told him. "Useless when it comes to comforting someone."

"I'm sorry I didn-" Peter apologised quickly, not sure what to say.

"No," Pepper shook her head. "It's part of why I loved – love – him."

"He was a good man," Peter told her.

"I know," Pepper told him. "When he got back to Earth... he was devastated. He would've done anything to get you back. He said as much. And he did."

"He once told me that if I died, it'd be on him," Peter said, Morgan beginning to wriggle slightly to be put down, wanting to be in the arms of the father that had once held her so tight.

"If anyone died, he thought it was on him," Pepper reminded him. "That was who he was."

"Mummy," Morgan whispered, looking up at her.

"Yes honey?" Pepper asked, looking down, concerned.

"Can he stay for dinner?" Morgan asked, looking between her mum and Peter.

"I-" Pepper was taken aback by the question. Clearly she had formed some sort of bond with Peter. She smiled at Peter. "You're welcome. Tony would've done anything to have just another meal with you."

"I wouldn't want to intrude-" Peter began.

"You wouldn't be," Pepper reassured her. "Tony saw you as family, and that means you're family."

"I never realised he cared so much," Peter said, thinking back to times that he had spent with Mr Stark. He realised that he had been overprotective: told him to stop fighting when they were fighting against Steve in Germany, taking his suit so he wouldn't get hurt, making sure that Peter had a suit that let him breathe in space before he got on the spaceship, yelling at him for getting on the spaceship. The list went on. "I never realised..."

"He was never good at showing people he cared," Pepper smiled sadly. "Morgan, you should get back to the house. Happy's trying to find you. Go tell him you're okay." Morgan nodded before flinging her arms around Peter's legs by way of saying goodbye.

"I'll see you for dinner," Peter told her, ruffling her hair slightly.

"Thank you," Pepper told him. "It's so difficult for her."

"I know," Peter sighed. "My uncle died when I was younger. I only had my aunt after that. Morgan's lucky, she's got so many people that cares for her."

"I just wish there was something I could do... to take away the pain of losing Tony,"

"I wish there was something that I could do to take away my pain," Salty tears ran down Pepper's face as she pulled him in for a hug. The arms wrapped around him reminded him of those of Mr Stark's during the battle. All Peter could do was wrap his arms around hers as tears also fell down his face.


End file.
